Charming Snakes (and Kings), from Egypt to Persia

Philippe Clancier (1) , Damien Agut-Labordere (2)

1 UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
2 ArScAn - Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité

The war between Assyria and Egypt resulted in the deportation of scholars from the Nile Valley to Mesopotamia. Among them were the so-called "snake charmers." While it was a well-known profession in Egypt, this was not the case in Assyria or Babylonia, where the treatment of snakebites and scorpion stings was left to exorcist doctors. A number of clues from the late Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian periods suggest that the "snake charmers" from Egypt enjoyed success with the kings of the great empires in the Middle East. Their presence most likely resulted from the professional structure and visibility of the Egyptian "snake charmers," which were relatively absent in Mesopotamia.

Mots clés: snake charmers; exorcism; medicine; Egypt; Assyria

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Philippe Clancier, Damien Agut-Labordere. Charming Snakes (and Kings), from Egypt to Persia. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, In press, ⟨10.1515/janeh-2020-0019⟩. ⟨hal-03190184⟩